On Shaky Ground? Income Instability and Economic Insecurity in Europe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

OECD, author, issuing body.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social mobility.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (94 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Paris : Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, 2023.

Summary:

Recognising that individuals' jobs and circumstances can change multiple times in a year, this report uses novel techniques to identify who is most exposed to income instability in European OECD countries and examines the effects it has on their lives, social mobility, and inequality.

Contents:

Intro

Foreword

ISO country codes

Executive summary

Many people will experience income instability at some stage in their life

More than one in six people in working-age households do not have sufficient financial buffers to manage their highly unstable incomes

A broad range of policies is needed to address economic insecurity

1. Income instability

1.1. Why should we focus on income instability?

1.2. Measuring income instability and understanding its impacts on people's well-being today and tomorrow

1.3. Infra-annual changes in income are common in European OECD countries

1.4. The experience of income instability for at-risk groups

References

Annex 1.A. Research literature on income instability

Annex 1.B. Methodological details

Decomposing monthly income instability into infra- and inter-annual components

Annex 1.C. Determinants of income instability and poverty

Notes

2. Economic insecurity

2.1. Why should we focus on economic insecurity?

2.2. How vulnerable are individuals to economic loss?

Who are the financially fragile?

2.3. Estimating economic insecurity as the interplay between income instability and financial fragility

2.4. Who has experienced economic insecurity and who is at risk in the future?

Who is at risk of economic insecurity in the future?

Annex 2.A. Methodology used for estimating disposable incomes in the HFCS

Annex 2.B. Odds ratios of the logit model

Annex 2.C. Predicting income instability in the HFCS

3. Policies to reduce economic insecurity

3.1. How can policies address economic insecurity?

3.2. Making social protection more timely

The frequency of benefits and tax credits can affect people's financial stability

Striking the right balance with waiting times for benefits.

Reducing delays due to means testing and having payments that reflect people's current circumstances

3.3. Government programmes to build financial literacy and resilience

Improving the targeting of savings incentives

Improving financial literacy

Increasing access to high-quality financial advice

Ending the cycle of over-indebtedness and debt delinquency

Annex 3.A. Review of policies and interventions targeting economic insecurity in selected OECD countries

Notes.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

92-64-80532-X

92-64-68129-9